At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake devastated northeastern Japan and caused one of Earth’s most dangerous nuclear catastrophes. Along with an enduring nuclear legacy, it also left an estimated 25 millions tons of rubble, much of it contaminated with asbestos and other carcinogenic toxins. Indeed, when the tides of the devastating tsunami ebbed, the unnatural disaster of cleaning up Japan’s pulverized and aerosolized built environment remained. Now, every time a backhoe or shovel digs into this rubble, asbestos fibers are released into the environment to threaten human health.The event at Pitt starts at 3:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map). The event at IUP runs from 3:30 to 5:30 pm in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Rm. 225. Both are free and open to the public.
Japan's history of asbestos use contrasts with many other industrialized nations. Although the United States EPA began phasing out asbestos in the 1970s, Japan continued to chrysotile asbestos until 2004. Indeed, asbestos was a critical fiber in the construction of Japan's modern built environment because of the culturally engrained fear of fire. Professor Walker will examine asbestos in the construction and, more importantly, destrucution of Japan's built environment, with a focus on the impact of the 3/11 disaster and the later clean up.
Based on Keigo Higashinoas award-winning novel, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X follows a professor (Wang Kai) assisting in a murder investigation, only to find that a longtime rival and friend (Zhang Luyi) from his early university days may be involved.Tickets are available from the AMC website. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County, Pittsburgh International Airport and tourism officials are traveling in China this week in the hopes of establishing air service between the airport in Findlay and China.. . .
Bob Kerlik, airport spokesman, said the group includes County Executive Rich Fitzgerald; Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis; Bryan Dietz, the airport's vice president of air service development; Vince Gastgeb, the airport's vice president of government and community affairs; VisitPittsburgh CEO Craig Davis; and Idea Foundry CEO Mike Matesic.
The goal of the trip is to establish scheduled nonstop flights between Pittsburgh and China, which would likely take several years to finalize, he said.
In the shorter term, officials hope to establish chartered flights to China and pursue opportunities with tour operators.
In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Akihiko Kayaba, called NerveGear. It was the first full-dive system, and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs.Tickets for the 2:00 pm show are available online for $15. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.
In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the Amusphere. A next-gen wearable device, the Augma doesn't have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality (AR) to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market. The most popular game on the system is "Ordinal Scale" (aka: OS), an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.
Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them. They're about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn't all fun and games…
The setup is lean and clean. A flattened deer, mowed down in a quarantine zone in Seoul where some kind of chemical spill has occurred (echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2007 enviro-horror film, “The Host”), springs back to life. Then, in just a few swiftly efficient scenes, we meet a harried hedge-fund manager and his small, sad daughter (Gong Yoo and an amazing Kim Su-ahn), see them settled on the titular locomotive and watch in dismay as a vividly unwell last-minute passenger lurches onboard. And we’re off!The movie will play from 4:00 to 7:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.
Sprinting right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement. (“In the old days, they’d be re-educated,” one biddy remarks upon spying an undesirable fellow traveler.) As zombies chomp and multiply, an assortment of regular folks face them down while furthering an extended critique of corporate callousness. The politics are sweet, but it’s the creatures that divert. Eyes like Ping-Pong balls and spines like rubber — I’d wager more than a few chiropractors were required on the set — they attack in seizures of spastic energy. They’re like break-dancing corpses.
The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures will present graduate student Sandi Ward's colloquium "San Mao: Oasis or Mirage? The Phenomenon of the 'Chinese Woman of the Desert'" on March 31.San Mao (三毛, 1943-1991) was one of the most popular writers in the Chinese-speaking world during the 1970s and '80s. Her most popular works concern life with her Spanish husband in Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) and the Canary Islands. These tales portray San Mao as an independent, resourceful wanderer making a home for herself wherever she goes, and interacting with overlooked members of society. San Mao's self-depiction as a representative of Chinese culture spreading goodwill throughout the world found a receptive audience in 1970s Taiwan, with her fame spreading to mainland China in the 1980s. These waves of enthusiasm for San Mao's work were dubbed "San Mao Fever" or the "San Mao Phenomenon."The talk begins at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.
"San Mao: Oasis or Mirage? The Phenomenon of the 'Chinese Woman of the Desert'" explores San Mao's popularity using Raymond Williams' term "structures of feeling." Williams used "structures of feeling" to describe the state of experiences as they emerge and develop; they help identify a generation or a spirit of an era. I argue that San Mao and her readers shared an affinity with a particular structure of feeling emphasizing freedom, equality, and self-expression, at a time when readers in Taiwan and mainland China faced government oppression and isolation from the wider world. Meanwhile, critics disdained San Mao in part because they inherently lacked access to this structure of feeling.
